Van­dorf Smith, 17, topped a field of 13 play­ers in the Un­der 1800 rat­ing group of the T&T Çhess Foun­da­tion's One Day Rapid Play tour­na­ment held at Bish­op Anstey High School on Sat­ur­day. Smith took the top prize of $200, play­ing un­beat­en to fin­ish the five-round event on four and a half points. With this vic­to­ry, the St Georges Col­lege stu­dent is now firm­ly in the ranks of the coun­try's top ju­niors hav­ing steadi­ly moved up­wards over the last few years.

Tak­ing sec­ond place half a point be­hind the win­ner is an­oth­er promis­ing young­ster, Ma­hen­dra Singh. The third spot was won by Ravi Ram­sa­roop on three and a half points, while Videsh Ram­sa­roop, Fi­ras Ali and Gabriel­la John­son fol­lowed on three points each.

The tour­na­ment, spon­sored by Agos­ti­ni In­sur­ance Bro­kers, at­tract­ed a to­tal of 106 play­ers in five rat­ing cat­e­gories. A sur­prise vis­i­tor to the event was Chief Jus­tice Ivor Archie who was a keen play­er dur­ing his years at St Mary's Çol­lege. In a brief ad­dress, the Çhief Jus­tice com­mend­ed the play­ers and their par­ents, urg­ing the youn­sters to con­tin­ue play­ing the game which would as­sist their aca­d­e­m­ic and men­tal. de­vel­op­ment. Cash prizes, tro­phies and medals were award­ed to the first ten play­ers in the Un­der 1800, Un­der 1400 and Un­der 12 groups. A spe­cial sec­tion for girls was in­tro­duced in­to the event, with Malai­ka Kerr, Sak­shi Kush­wa­ha and Re­bec­ca Tom­pack tak­ing the first three places.

Fol­low­ing are the oth­er re­sults:

Un­der 1400: (1) Shan­non Year­wood 4.5; (2) Iqwe Craig 4; (3) Melchizedek Pe­gus 4; (4) Sean Bridglals­ingh 4; (5) Syl­van Year­wood 3.5; (6) Jean-Mac Grander­son 3; (7) Je­re­my Am­mon 3; (8) Dar­ron Bris­tol 3; (9) Alex Wal­cott 3: (10) Zurich Smith.

Un­der 1200: (1) Isaac Pe­gus 6; (2) Phillip Mo­hammed 5.5; (3) Kosi Reg­is 5; (4) Joshua Wal­cott 5; (5) Man­as Pot­dar 5; (6) Karis­sa Soonoo 4.5; (7) Savio Fournil­li­er 4; (8) Jon-Raphael Sealy 4; (9) Christo­pher Bolandz 4; (10) Zhan Peng 4.

Novice: (1) Nico­lai Mo­hammed 6; (2) Trestan Fournil­li­er 6; (3) Alpheaus Soogrim 6; (4) Chris­t­ian James 5.5; (5) Zarius Ali 5; (6) &Ar­ing;idan Mo­hammed 5; (7) Sand­hya Sookoo 5; (8) Tariq Ho­sein 5; (9) Jay­den Drakes 4.5; (10) Ethan Mo­hammed 4.5.

Open Girls: (1) Malai­ka Kerr 4.5; (2) Sak­shi Kush­wa­ha 3.5; (3) Re­bec­ca Tom­pak 3.5.